A Brazilian man is lucky to be alive after he accidentally shot himself through the eye with a speargun, lodging a harpoon in his skull for hours before doctors where able to successfully extract the object.
Bruno Coutinho was cleaning his harpoon gun at home on April 14 when he accidentally triggered the apparatus, sending a 6-inch harpoon through his left eye and into his cranium.
X-rays showed the instrument passing through the man's eye straight through to the back of his skull.
Coutinho's neighbour said the whole ordeal was unbelievable and terrifying.
Somehow, after the accident, Coutinho was coherent and managed to call for help and was taken to Santa Teresa hospital.
It took surgeons four hours and two surgeries to remove the harpoon which had been stuck in Coutinho's head for more than 10 hours.
The chief of neurosurgery at the Santa Teresa Hospital, Dr. Orlando Maia, said the object came only millimetres from piercing major arteries or other vitals in Coutinho's head.
Amazingly the patient did not suffer any brain damage, but has lost sight in his left eye.
Coutinho has remained in the intensive care unit, but is expected to be released in coming days.
Video Source: Reuters